Res Gestae

I wrote recently about how half-hour workplace sitcom Better Off Ted could be profitably read as a science fiction text. Well, the BOT folks have now sealed their cred as totally cool geeks: there’s a Dalek in a storeroom at Veridian Dynamics, where all the old electronic equipment goes to die!

I’m not the only one who pointed and laughed when I saw this. Others have done my screencapping and vid-cutting work for me. ... read more »

I have several SF shows that I thought I couldn’t wait to watch: the 2009 remake of The Prisoner, the newly updated Day of the Triffids, the latest Doctor Who special, the last two eps of V, the last three eps of Paradox—I have them all right here, and despite my interest in them, I’m just not priotizing them.

What do I watch instead? What show do I obtain instantly upon release? What show do I make time to watch in a day jam-packed with distractions? ... read more »

The blogosphere has been abuzz with chatter about “Spork! An Erotic Love Story.” This audio slash fanfic has been both lauded (by bloggers) and reviled (by some humorless people in the comments) at sci-fi info sites like BuzzFeed, SciFiWire, and io9. Alas, the authorship of this hilarious artwork has been elided by misrepresentative journalistic headlines. Somehow, it’s all about Zachary Quinto. ... read more »

This semester, I am adjuncting an online-only science fiction class at a nearby university that caters to full-time workers, bringing my number of simultaneously held paid jobs to three. Because I am primarily a freelancer, I think of things in freelance terms: maximizing money earned, minimizing time and effort. It all comes down to the hourly rate you command. When I taught before, I agonized about every decision: what books, what organizational scheme. This time? Not so much.

I just received my contributor’s copy of Cinema Journal 48, no. 4 (2009). In it is an In Focus section edited by my Transformative Works and Cultures coeditor, Kristina Busse, about fandom and feminism, and I’ve contributed an essay about fan gift culture. Many of the other contributors are people I work with at TWC.

The In Focus section is available for download as PDF here. The contents are as follows: ... read more »